According to several attendees, Vogt, a longtime researcher of Brazilian turtles, showed several pictures of “scantily clad female students” doing field research. The photographs were risqué enough that conference organisers added blue boxes to cover parts of the women’s bodies.

Henry Mushinsky, committee chairman of the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, told Democrat and Chronicle that the conference did not have a code of conduct. He said that students doing fieldwork near water often wear bathing suits, but that these photos were “not just typical documentary photos,” Democrat and Chronicle wrote.

Several attendees tweeted that they walkedout of the talk. The Herpetologists league offered a statement to conference attendees condemning Vogt’s behaviour.

The New York Timesreports that the controversial slides were consistent with Vogt’s reputation. The president of the Herpetologist’s League’s decision to honour the scientist came despite warnings against the choice from the organisation’s board, according to the NYT.

It is 2018, and if you are alive and read or watch literally any news at all, it’s clear that Vogt and those who reviewed his slides should have known better. If you’re given an award, you shouldn’t embarrass the award-givers during the talk by making the audience uncomfortable. And if you’re an award organiser reviewing slides, you should know what will anger the audience — and know whether your presenter has a rumoured history of this sort of behaviour.

Tweets from the conference further illustrate some scientists’ reactions to Vogt’s talk.

I'm not even at #JMIH18 rn and I know she's talking about Vogt. It's no secret to female herpetologists that he is a person to avoid. Before my 1st conference, my female PI talked to her female students for AN HOUR about his notoriously sketchy behavior & how to avoid him. https://t.co/iO6VsQsBTS

Vogt was talking with 2 colleagues at a herp conference in PA years ago. A Latina student approached & remarked how exciting it was to meet such famous biologists. Vogt looked her over and asked “have you ever f*cked a herpetologist”. 1/ https://t.co/zvOGVnogqJ

Like many industries right now, science is in the midst of reckoning with its sexual misconduct problems. Cognitive sciences, archaeology, astronomy and other fields have been shaken by revelations of sexual assault and sexual harassment from senior academics. And according to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, offensive pictures and jokes most definitely fall under the category of “harassment”.

The four scientific societies that put together the conference are working on a code of conduct for the event, reports Democrat and Chronicle.

So, scientists, journalists, literally anyone who is planning to present something in front of an audience: If you deliver near-nudity when the audience expects turtles, don’t be surprised when they react negatively.

And to conference organisers: If you don’t want this kind of controversy, listen to the people who tell you that you’re about to honour someone who will give you these problems.

Trending Stories Right Now

While some folks may be worrying about Google’s next phone, especially with leaks suggesting the Pixel 3 could sport the biggest notch we’ve seen on a handset yet, it seems Google may have more immediate concerns after the release of Android 9 Pie created issues with charging speeds on the original Pixel XL.

GIF. Tom Caswell (Gizmodo)
Anki doesn't think it's cracked the code and developed the perfect robot to work at the center of your smart home, but with Vector it feels it's created a robot adorable enough, and smart enough, to tide you over until the future finally catches up with our desire.